Context can be described as information that can be used for characterizing the status of an entity. The entity can be a person, place, or an object relevant for any type of interaction between user and application, including the user and the application itself. The parameters such as (a) where is the user; (b) who is the user; (c) how the user works; (d) when the activity is being done; and (e) what the user is doing are used to build a context aware environment. Typically, four things, namely, location, entity, activity, and time are defined to address the parameters for building a context aware environment.
Context-aware services, that is, services that provide customized information acquisitions and adaptations to users based on users' contextual information are attracting a lot of attention. Context-aware and situation-aware services together enhance the perceived quality of the delivered information. Context awareness provides mechanisms for developing adaptive applications and is an important aspect of interactive TV applications. A context-aware information retrieval system analyzes a user's history to derive an enhanced context. Context awareness is especially very important during coordination and collaboration. A context aware system retrieves and delivers information of high utility to a user from the point of view collaboration.
Context awareness and context modeling have raised their call for attention and importance quite recently in the world of contact centers for better customer services and relations. To address the issues of contextual reuse and contextual inconsistencies, there is a need for context models that foster context reuse and support ease of retrieving right kind of information by providing appropriate abstractions of contextual information. A hybrid context model is defined based on multi level situation theory and ontology.
The growth of digital television, over satellite, cable, as well as terrestrial networks, has driven advertisers to “better target” users by local personalized advertisements that can generate qualified leads for future sales. The advent of personal video recorders and video on demand is viewed as a threat by advertisers as they create ad-skippers. As the viewers started evading advertisements, ad agencies compete on innovative ways to ensure their ads are viewed. There is a strong need to re-work on TV advertising to create innovative features that can exploit advertisement opportunities and ad targeting is important in this scenario. Similarly, in a mobile scenario, there are excellent opportunities to target ads to enhance return on investment for the sponsors. The proposed invention addresses this need for content targeting in a variety of scenarios such as (a) web-based collaborations; (b) enterprise information retrieval; (c) mobile environments; (d) TV environments; and (e) contact centers.